copper pot stills at tequila distillery

The New Normal

https://anchor.fm/detroit-richards/embed/episodes/The-New-Normal-e1anph7

The old normal
Was nothing 
Special.
This new normal
Is strangely
Unsettled.
I did ask you to 
"Be my baby tonight":
You told me that our
Love was not 
Up for adoption:
Sorry for throwing
My shoe
At you
But when someone
Pulls that cliché 
Shit
There really isn't 
Anything else left
To go to. 
How I long for
An unquiet mind
To make me
Furiously
Content
In mine.

This new normal
Installed a 
Premature 
Long black veil.
Drawn down
Leaving me
Treading the sidewalks
In the fullness
Of mourning.

A bugle horn sometimes
Sounds bugle call
For real.
And the Last Stand
Had 
Finally 
Been
Sounded
Across 
Deception Falls
After
The Jackass
Hee hawed
"Wolf!"
More times
Than I dare
To recall.

Life is now
Normal!
Yet to adjust
To normal things
When the past
Has been abnormal,
The present is fragile,
And the future 
Threatening
Disaster
Is a tall order,
It is makes me
Fragile if not
Quite bitter.

Hold me responsible to
Fix, withstand 
And wrestle:
When the fat has
Been trimmed 
The brutal 
Reality remains:
I have to 
Live with
Myself
After all.

So it's moonshiner's 
Life for me! 
Distilling the
Essence of the
Whatness
Of Life.
Boil it in the
Copper
Push it
Through the
Rags 
Used 
Infused 
And sullied.
Open the tap
And run off
The poison.
There is 
Never more than
A single shot of
Truth 
There
To down
Or else to 
Pour a 
Little over 
The Potter's field.
All that life...
So little yield
For the losses
And gains
The miles on the
Road, the hard
Hard rain,
And these
Sedentary days
Spent
Tapping
out life
on keys
And strings
Beating out 
The gold 
And copper
Thread
That runs 
Off
These odds
And ends
Of Days

Remembering
Eightball cuties
Methed out
And smokey,
Daisy Duck 
And Minnie Mouse
Getting down
And dirty
With Bugs and
Elmer
Sniffing glue
And raising
Hell...
And all those
Trailer Park 
Homies
With their
U100s and
Pills, both
Real and Phony,
And the tracks
And shacks
And chicken houses
And trains
That ran along 
The tracks
Lulling us to sleep,
Their lights shining
Into our bedroom
You cold as steel
Me drunk
And nodded out
And weak
Not daring
To feel
Anything
At all.

And now
In this 
New normality
I wonder
If I should have
Another
Shot
Of pumpkin spice
Syrup in my
Soy latte?
I wonder if anyone
Has a mind to spark 
Off mine?
I wonder if this gap 
Will get filled
Or if this
Is where 
My life
Ends?
Alone.

I'm looking
For a Jonah Persona
A rabbit's foot
Stapled to 
A rambling letter.
A new normality.
Something
Anything
To make 
The new
Normal
Feel 
A 
Little
Better.

6 Comments

      1. Ariana

        You are right, poetry can be vulnerable… But it can also be a bit of a cloak too, if you want it to be. I have been writing poetry since elementary school, sometimes nothing pleases me more than writing a poem in a way to where it’s almost like a riddle. It’s very clear to me what I meant, but the reader can take it many different ways, so I can have that catharsis of saying something I felt like I needed to say without completely stripping my psyche down in public 😁 I am OK, it’s been busy, and we had a situation in one of Tony’s walking routes (not related to anything he did) that necessitated a change in route, so he’s been less than pleased, and we’ve all been being extra vigilant. Otherwise, doing ok. How are you doing?

      2. The Paltry Sum: Detroit Richards

        Im ok. Worried about my housing long term, trying to get a portfolio together to get some freelance work going. I haven’t been well recently, but think I am on the med, at least not getting worse. Sorry to hear about the upset on the route! I know if something upsets the routine all hell breaks loose! It is so hard!

      3. Ariana

        I am so sorry to hear that you have not been well 💔 and that there are housing worries…these are hard times, but you have a very engaging writing style. I think surely others will recognize that in you as well 💜

      4. The Paltry Sum: Detroit Richards

        Ive been trying to do some breaking into some more paid work, and monetizing my site which will help…I set up a patreon which I have to actually promote at some point. I got very disheartened after losing my publisher. Im starting to get better I think. Thank you for the encouragement!

Leave a Reply